Snow means go

Facilities Management ready to clear campus

By David Sorensen

The provincial government is reminding people this winter that snow
means slow, an ad campaign designed to reduce accidents caused by
poor driving conditions. For the dedicated Facilities Management
crew responsible for keeping Memorial’s St. John’s
campus clear, snow is the green light to go.

Bob Walsh is the manager of Building Services and Grounds in
Facilities Management. He co-ordinates the response on the St.
John’s campus when snow hits, whether it’s two
centimetres or two metres.

Since Campus Enforcement are on campus 24 hours a day, snow
reports in the early hours usually come from them. The call then
goes to a utility foreperson in Facilities Management who makes an
assessment on the level of need for snow clearing. It’s then
that the external contractor gets called, along with the university
staff if needed. That call can come any time of the day or
night.

The campus’s own response team is actually relatively
small, Mr. Walsh said. While a contractor is responsible for the
main roadways and parking lots, the Facilities Management team of
12 people and custodial staff take care of everything else.

The list of secondary areas that need snow removal includes
stairwells, fire hydrants, storage tanks, tunnel entrances, and the
roof of the Health Sciences Centre.

The contractor is also responsible for Memorial’s
buildings on Mount Scio Rd., and the Ocean Sciences Centre (OSC) in
Logy Bay.

“We do the ‘got-tos’ first,” said Mr.
Walsh.

The places on that list include student residences – since
people live here snow or not – and the Health Sciences
Centre, for obvious reasons.

Clearing the campus on a typical snowy day is a challenge of
timing, said Mr. Walsh.

Adding to the challenge is the nature of the Newfoundland
winter, with its winds that often dump more snow in some areas than
others. Mr. Walsh pointed to a December day last year when
Environment Canada said 20 centimetres had fallen, but some drifts
on the St. John’s campus were one-metre high.

On the days when the weather is too bad to open, the system
still follows the same pattern, he said. The snow still needs to be
cleared – especially around the residences and HSC.

“The HSC is still a priority even during a storm,”
he said. “We focus on keeping the main roadways open until
the storm abates.”